


In the House of G-Wash

by frechi123, Hamino (frechi123)



Series: The Tunnelsquad [2]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Everyone is friendly enough to one another, Gen, Lee is not a jerk, Mentions the older Theodosia, Prequel, Samuel is a friend, Samuel isn't a Loyalist, Thomas and James were not enemies with Alexander, Washingparents, and still aren't, except to his friends, just depressed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-20 22:26:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 22,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13727256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frechi123/pseuds/frechi123, https://archiveofourown.org/users/frechi123/pseuds/Hamino
Summary: Before falling down to the Underground, before running away, the Revelationaries were perfectly content in their newfound family of the Washingtons. It's not until King George starts threatening the lives of Phillip Schuyler, Charles Lee, Theodosia Prevost and even poor Samuel Seabury, among many others, that they decide to do something that will change their lives forever.~ Prequel ~





	1. The Revolutionary Set: The Start of All of It

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prequel to "Revelations and Revolutions". You don't particularly have to read this one first to get that one (although reading Chapter 2 there gives some foreshadow into this one!).
> 
> Also, unlike the first work, this story is completely told by Alexander.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The start of the huge family, and the reasons why Alexander Hamilton, John Laurens, Gilbert de Lafayette, and Hercules Mulligan were taken in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are you ready?! Let's start!

_How does a bastard, orphan,_  
_son of a whore -_  
_A Scotsman_  
_end up at the front step of Washington?_

How _do_ you think we all got here?

I suppose we should start with me.

Alexander Hamilton.

Also known as the loudmouth who tends to shoot off anything and everything at once when I'm overexcited. My childhood was far from being remotely quiet; it was way too terrifying to get excited over.

Fate didn't want me to have a good start, it seemed. First came my dad's departure, then my mom's death from sickness, my cousin's hanging of himself, and finally a devastating hurricane, which happened to render my brother MIA.

Yeah... the worst part in most kids' lives would probably just not getting what they want. Like some useless toy or such.

Fate has some weird companions, like Misfortune and Unlucky. I wonder if they did this to me on purpose when I finally left Nevis. Maybe so I could shock everyone, I guess.

George Washington was definitely shocked by me. I remember my first day meeting him.

He tried to adopt me right on sight. For the longest time it used to bother me, the way he always called me son. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were not particularly helpful, as they constantly accused Washington of favoritism. It was hard for me to bite my tongue so I didn't agree with them out loud, for two reasons.

I wished they didn't think I was trying to use him to get ahead, what with my significant switch from aide-de-camp to Secretary of the Treasury. I respected George too much for that. Every day I wondered if George was doing this just because he felt pity for me. That thought was eating away at me, because I hated pity and I wanted to know if I had to set George straight, even at the risk of any punishment he might dole out.

I couldn't have been more shocked when he walked me into his house one day, into the dining room. Sat us down to explain himself.

Why he always kept me close. How he was trying to keep me safe, sane, and alive. I was crying by the end of this little schpiel while he was holding me in his arms after I bolted from my seat and ran into them in an attempt to calm me down. Martha walked in after a bit and saw us there. I looked up from his shirt from my slightly hunched position on the floor and said, weakly, "Won't you join us, Mama?"

Let's just say we were all a happy sobbing mess of a family for the rest of that day.

And that, my friends, is how the Washington family gained their first foster child.

***********************************************************

 _Senseless father_  
_Defenseless son_  
_how can he be saved?_  
_flee, you must RUN!_

Who do I find, one week later, dangling from my window, with his curly hair whipping in the harsh fall winds while I simply tried to relax in my new bed with a good book?

John Laurens.

He's lucky I like him a lot, otherwise I would have called him insane. More than usual, that is. I think he had one too many pints of Sam Adams; he tends to do really crazy things when that happens.

I was so absorbed in my book, trying to ignore the wind outside, that I almost didn't hear those equally super loud knocks at the window. I looked up cautiously and saw nothing. Curious, I slowly placed my book open flat on my bed and inched slowly towards said window.

As soon as I looked down, he popped up.

You'd never have heard me scream louder. George and Martha were out, so luckily I didn't have to worry about disturbing them.

I flung open the window and pulled him inside. He appeared sober enough. He tilted his head with a small smile.

"So the rumor is true. You're rooming out here with the Washingtons." John started smoothing his hair, aroused by the wind, back into place.

"Laurens! What on earth were you doing dangling from my window?! Jesus!" Then I suddenly realized what he said. "Wait, what rumor?? What have people been saying about me?!"

He sat down at my desk chair and held his hands up in defense. "Nothing bad, I promise! Angelica just heard the Washingtons talking when we were out in the square earlier, talking about what kind of food you would like or something. We just assumed they were inviting you over for dinner or some stuff."

I crossed over to my window and pulled it shut before anything else decided to fly off my desk, like my papers. Then I turned back to John. "Why would you even assume that?"

He rolled his eyes. "Please, it's obvious to everyone that he thinks of you like a son. That part didn't need any deducing from us."

I crossed my arms. "Fine, fine. So what finally made you think that I was staying here then? Or, more appropriately, _who_ made you think I was staying here?"

"It was Thomas, actually," he said with a sheepish look.

I raised a eyebrow. "Jefferson?!" And when he nodded, I snapped, "I thought you said that it wasn't anything bad!"

John narrowed his eyes. "It's not. Just because Thomas gave us the idea doesn't mean he tried to slander your good name. Jeez, Alex! You have to give him some credit."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine... what'd he say?"

"He just told us that he overheard them talking about your sleeping arrangements. Angelica and I had found that absurd, of course, but as the days went by it started to make a bit of sense. You always walk the new same path when you go home these days - which we remembered led to the Washingtons. Then Angelica dared me to go find out if it was true, which I agreed to because I didn't really plan on going home today... nor do I want to... so here I am."

I took notice of John when he said the last part. "What do you mean you don't want to go home?"

His eyes looked forlorn, and he started tugging on his curls nervously. "It's too dangerous to go back now! I just don't want him to get me."

In the short trip from the window to my desk I put my hands on the back of the chair and glanced down toward him. "Who is 'him', John? Who don't you want to get you?" I asked, even though I had a terrifying feeling of who he meant.

He looked back at me, and a few tears slipped down his freckled cheeks. "My father. He's disowned me and I ran away. Now he's trying to hunt me down."

"Why?! You'd think that he would want nothing to do with you!"

He nodded in agreement. "He's worried that I'll try to ruin his reputation."

It's true that Henry Laurens was a ruthless senator, the devil incarnate of our sector, what with all his so-called power going to his head. He was devout of certain beliefs and expected his children to follow through. His daughters already did; Mary was too scared to defy him and Martha was a mini-Henry, basically. John constantly tried to see things his way, but he still managed to find his own truth to certain matters, which managed to piss Henry off to the point that he yelled that he was no son of his and that he should not come back.

I remembered that I had been downstairs in his house when I heard that. It had been two weeks ago and John desperately flew down the stairs afterwards to usher me out the door before his father tried to hurt me, despite my protests to help.

John is just like that. He's the kind of person who tries his best to tell you like it is while never hurting your feelings.

"That doesn't sound like you," I said. "He knows you could have tried to splatter it all over the wall under his roof, and that you wouldn't dare if you knew the consequences. Why now?"

John reached into his pocket and pulled out some pieces of paper with extensive writing across them. Then he held them up for me to see. As my eyes grazed it all I felt my eyes growing huge as I suddenly realized what I was staring at.

This was extensive proof of his abuse over the years. About five pages of it to be exact, written with the only quill he had ever owned. His mom gave it to him. He told me once that she'd told him that writing was an escape, that he'd know what she meant in due time.

She didn't know that he already had a good idea.

When she passed away (within the third year of John's writings) he had to hide all his evidence elsewhere, as he used to hide it with his mom previously.

"He knows?" I said finally, hands on my cheeks in shock.

"It was Martha," he said. "She caught me writing it and told him immediately. I denied writing it, of course, until he came up with one of my proof sheets, meaning Martha swiped it and gave it to him when I didn't notice." He brought his feet on the chair and hugged his knees. "I can't believe she would do this to me. Well, maybe I can, but still! Even Lee isn't that big of a jerk when he's angry to rat people out if it meant they were going to possibly end up dead!"

Charles Lee wasn't an enemy per se, but he's as volatile as they come. He wasn't particularly pleased with John after he broke one of his ribs in their last duel (only because Lee took his anger out on me). The only reason he broke them is because I wasn't allowed to do it myself. (Washington was actually pissed with me that day when I said that, no tough love at all, and as much as I wanted to punch Lee, George wouldn't allow it.)

Martha came into the room then, as I was trying to console John who had started crying again, but with much more fervor. Her hand was over her heart in sympathy as she screamed for George to get over here while John handed her the papers, albeit a bit shakily, too shaken to talk.

Needless to say, John Laurens was saved for another lifetime.

***********************************************************

 _Home away from home_  
_chosen to pursue_  
_Left to his own devices_  
_what's a man to do?_

Gilbert de Lafayette is the kind of person that knows how to instill a laugh in anyone, no matter how grim the situation seems. He's always smiling and lives to entertain and cheer people up.

It's quite painful to see him so sad.

Today John and I were just on a hike along the road to the square just to take in the fresh air. I carried my quill and papers and he carried his paintbrushes. We decided on trying to write a story just to entertain our friends.

As we approached our favorite cherry tree, I suddenly heard crying. John and I looked at each other worriedly and then back at the tree, in which a figure was huddled under. Poofy hair stuck out by the lowest branch of the tree, and, very quietly, we heard sad French being sung.

"Lafayette?" I called out quietly, so as to not scare him off. The singing stopped, and he turned from his sitting position to face towards us. His eyes widened, and more tears had slipped from them.

We rushed up to the base of the tree and took a spot on either side of him. "Are you okay?" asked John. "I don't think we've ever seen you this upset before."

Lafayette wiped his eyes on his sleeve and looked from him to me. "Oui. I pride myself on being the happiest of us all, do I not?" He smiled sadly. "I am sorry. I guess I just miss home more than usual today."

He was from France, and he was proud of it. Lafayette loved to regale tales of his motherland. Or at least that's what he says. (That may be his, but it's not ours; mine is Nevis, and John would rather not speak of the one he's forced to be a part of.)

Laf sighed. "Sometimes it just hits me that I might not get to see my family any time soon; you know how King George has closed off out of country traveling for the time being. I do not know why he would do such a thing - that is just him, I suppose?" He slumped his shoulders. "I guess what I want to say is that I want a family that lives here and is not inaccessible by any means."

We grabbed Laf and pulled him into a hug. "That's why you have us. We're your family, don't forget that," said John.

Laf smiled again, a little less sad this time. "You are right. Sometimes I wonder how you cope, what with your lack of family too." He knows about my situation and John's heartless father.

"Let's just say that there's no better family figures that you can get than the Washingtons," I said, and Lafayette perked up a bit at this.

"Oui! I hear that you are staying with them at the present time?" he asked.

I nodded. "Mm hmm. On that subject... I wonder if they'd be willing to take on anyone else?"

Laf grinned. "Think of the stories people would tell." At those words, John reached for our items on the ground beside us.

"Ooh, we should write about that!" he said enthusiastically. And when Lafayette and I gave him strange looks, he clarified. "The new stitched up sense of family we seem to be getting ourselves into."

I jumped up, not too fast to avoid hitting my head. "John Laurens, you're a genius!" I cried out, as Lafayette cautiously stood up as well. His height reached nearly 4 of the branches in the tree and sometimes I wondered how he went with the struggle of hitting his head on the ceiling. (He told us he did that an awful lot.)

"What do we wait for?!" Lafayette said as he helped John up. "We have history in the making to start here!"

***********************************************************

 _Misunderstood_  
_in the mood to brood_  
_Up in it, loving it?_  
_Everyone says he's out of it_

"Whoops, sorry man!" I yelled as I slammed right into Hercules Mulligan. I was rushing home after buying some supplies that Laf, John, and I were using for story purposes, and I wasn't looking where I was going - hence slamming into the final piece of our Revolutionary Set (which I'm forever grateful to have been accepted into).

Now, even if he knows you well, Hercules tends to overact and overreact, doing the best angry impressions for someone who was joking. Sometimes it was extremely hard to tell when he joked, he was that eerily good.

But today, he just shrugged it off and said, "it's whatever."

I reached up to put my hands on his shoulders. "Are you okay, Hercules? You seem pretty down."

He looked down at me. "Seems to be following a pattern, doesn't it? Oh, how's your story coming along, by the way?"

I tilted my head at his first remark but nevertheless glanced down at the extensive amount of papers I've put down. "It's going okay. I think Laf's story is taking up most of the book right now."

He chuckled. "That sounds about like our favorite Frenchman. Where is he, anyway?"

"Oh, he's with John, George and Martha. They're all playing cards at home." I started walking along and he followed behind. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Herc sighed. "It's just... parents, man. Namely, mine. They don't get me."

I hummed. "Mm hmm. John says the same thing about his dad all the time. And his sisters too."

"They're probably going to try and ship me away someday," said Hercules. We had gotten back to the Washingtons and were standing at the front door. "Anything to not have to see me in their way again."

I sighed inwardly. What is wrong with our families, geez?! Mine's dead and dysfunctional, Laf's is too far from him, and John and Herc's were just flat out cruel. People like us just needed the Washingtons in our lives. They were so willing to take us in. I'd been with them a month, John had been three weeks, and Laf has gone about eight days. And so far, we're managing just fine.

"Why can't they just leave you alone?" I asked as I flopped into the armchair. "Why can't they be nice and leave you alone?"

He rolled his eyes. "They're never nice." He sunk into the middle of the three seater couch and put his head in his hands. Right then, John and Lafayette came bounding down the stairs.

"Come back here with that, you old maid!" John yelled at Lafayette, who was laughing too hard and somehow still staying on his feet. It's clearly obvious what game they had been in the middle of.

"Non! You will have to fight for it like a man!" he replied, before he tripped over the rug and fell into Hercules's lap. He looked up, slightly confused, before immediately brightening. "Hercules, mon ami! When did you get here?"

He took his head up out of his hands and jerked a thumb at me. "Eh, I followed Alex. Had to get out of the house, clear my head."

John, who had fallen into me after he tripped, walked over and put a sympathetic hand on Hercules's shoulder. "I take it that family is getting you down?"

He nodded. "Mm hmm. They don't want to understand me. Why did I get parents that are so uptight?"

It's true that no one in Hercules's family understood the way he operated. He told us that he figured he was pretty much screwed from the day he yelled out to people to lock up their daughters and horses. Most of us knew he was kidding, of course. Some people who thought he was serious just laughed it off and cheered him on. But when his family heard about it, they called him a disgrace. If he was lucky, Herc said, then they wouldn't come after him with the spoons.

"Better than coming at you with the whip," said John, and rolled up his sleeve for us to see. Some of the scars were healing, due to Martha's attempts to patch him up, near to his hand. But most of the ones closer to his shoulder were still red, angry, and screaming. Lafayette, Hercules, and I looked on anxiously as John rolled down his sleeve again.

"Martha's going to worry so much about me when she sees these," John said with a sigh. "I told her that I'm fine, even though that couldn't be far from the truth. She has heightened motherly senses for a woman who hasn't been one before."

"Oui," Lafayette said, standing up and nodding in agreement. "She just cares a lot."

All three of us looked at Hercules and then at each other, getting the exact same idea, and then shouted, "MARTHA!" at the top of our lungs.

"What is it?!" she shouted back from her study upstairs. She may be older but she sure can project her voice. Only a few seconds later, she yells, "Who is it this time?!"

We all snickered at her amazing intuition. "Hercules Mulligan!" John shouted back to her.

All the while, Hercules tilted his head in confusion, looking at us strange, probably what the heck we were up to. It wasn't until Martha yelled, "show him around, would you please?" that he realized what we were doing. He shook his head in amused wonder. "You guys sure are something else." And he finally laughed, genuinely, for the first time today.

***********************************************************

It seemed that four of us crashing at the Washingtons should have been enough for them to handle. But of course we would be wrong. The next week was about prove just how wrong we were, that our family could only expand from here.


	2. Southern Mother-F**king Democratic Republicans Wanna Feel The Love Too

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison lost their sense of family and wanted it again, and joined up with the Rev Set.

_What's his prose?_  
_No one knows_  
_They all sat chattin'_  
_Left him out of the room where it happened_

Now here's something you might not believe.

If you remember what I said earlier, it's that I thought the Washingtons would have stopped trying to take in more unfortunate souls after us. After all, we know that we tend to pretty much be a handful when we're all in the same room. _Everyone_ knows this by now. And you might have thought we would be content with just the four of us.

Aaron Burr was about to disprove both of those points.

Yes, the one in the same that stands neutral on any argument he's brought into, except when it involves his best friend, Theodosia Prevost. Nice girl. (We all tease Aaron about him and Theo all the time, but he knows we mean well.)

Ironic, huh? Anyway...

Down at Hollendaise Park, where the fabled cherry tree sat, Lafayette was feeding the ducks in the pond while Hercules was exercising. John and I sat up above in the branches of the tree, discussing ideas for more people to add to the story and getting inspiration for the pictures.

"Where on earth do you see that bench anywhere?!" I was asking, while trying to calm my laughs down. He had drawn a sketch of the view in front of us from the tree's eye view and I was looking over it for accuracy.

John reached up and thumped my glasses off my forehead. "You have those for a reason! Use them! Now look over there," he said, pointing out into the distance. Even with my glasses on, I still had to squint to even make out the vague shape he was referencing. I rolled my eyes.

"How'd you expect me to see that?! You know I can't see that far!"

He grinned. "Better start improving, Alex."

"You wound me, Laurens, making fun of a cripple like that," I said, draping my arm over my forehead in a dramatic fashion, leading to John nudging me playfully, "oh please, you are not crippled! So dramatic, Hamilton!"

Suddenly, there was a scream. John and I looked up from our work and antics. Lafayette turned from the pond and Hercules froze in place. All four of us caught sight of Aaron and some of King George's servants harassing him as he walked. We hopped out of the tree and followed Laf and Herc up to them.

"What is going on here?" asked Lafayette.

The men sneered at us. "Oh, just the simple disturbing of the peace from our unofficial town crier here. We're scolding him. Nothing new."

Aaron hung his head, but I could see that he had been crying (and was still silently doing so). "I didn't even do anything..." he said dejectedly. Hercules pulled him away from the men and glared at them.

"What's your problem?!" he asked them, and all the men snickered, "why are you torturing him?"

"Oh please. _We're_ not the ones really doing anything. It's not our fault he had such a pretty friend. The King had to have her," said one of the men. I scrunched my face in confusion before I suddenly unscrunched it in horrified realization.

Theodosia. They were talking about her.

It's been rumored that King George had mistresses by his side to entertain him on any given whim - _any_ kind of entertainment he saw fit. Theo didn't deserve to be anywhere near that crowd; she was too innocent for her own good. Aaron's tears fell faster, and he mumbled something about wishing he could just shut them up.

"Leave him alone, geez," John snapped. "How would you like it if your friends were snatched away for the rest of their life for torture? Although, I imagine it wouldn't be very many - you vile beings seem to have only friends in each other, so I guess you would never know or care."

All the King's men rose an eyebrow at that, shocked for a second. Then they shrugged and walked away.

We all turned and look at Aaron. He looked up at all of us, and his face was still littered with tears. He sighed, but didn't move away from Hercules.

"Are you okay?" I asked finally. He shook his head. "We're sorry about Theo."

"I fear the worst..." Aaron started hitting his forehead with a small fist. And just like that he was a hyperventilating mess. Lafayette and John were trying not to scream and panic along with him, as they weren't sure how to handle this. Hercules and I were more composed, and more experienced, and so as we headed back to the Washingtons', the two of us tried our absolute hardest to talk Aaron out of his stupor.

********************************************

"Oh dear, what's wrong with Aaron?" George asked, when he found us all, hours later, in the sitting room. Hercules was sitting in the armchair with John lying on the floor at his feet. Aaron was in the middle of the three-seater, with his hands pressed on his face again and quiet sobs muffled in them. Lafayette and I were sitting on either side of him, and while I was rubbing his back, Laf was speaking to him in hushed tones.

Hercules was the one to answer. "He lost Theo."

"What do you mean by 'lost'?" By the crack in his voice, I know he didn't want to assume the worst, but did anyway.

John sat up. "She's not dead, she's been taken hostage by King George to be a mistress for the rest of her days," he said, albeit a bit casually.

"Which is as bad as, if not worse than, death itself!" Aaron snapped, raising his head. "No one should have to go through such compromising circumstances, especially not Theo!"

All of us were shocked that he'd actually raised his voice, although not as much as it has been for Theo's sake. Aaron hung his head in shame and embarrassment realizing this, "...sorry, shouldn't have snapped..."

John shook his head. "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said it so casually. This isn't a joke or something we can or should brush off."

"There's nothing to be done," Aaron sighed. "I'll have to come to terms with the fact that I was once again left alone."

Lafayette squeezed his shoulder. "You are never left alone, do you hear me? You will always have us and the rest of your friends."

"Like the Schuylers, and Maria, and Thomas and James too," John supplied from his place on the floor.

"And you're family, Aaron," George said, arms crossed and leaning in the entryway. "You can consider Martha and I your parents all you like."

"We already do it," I said, with a giggle. Aaron smiled through the few tears left on his face.

"I appreciate that, and always will. How do I sign up for this 'family arrangement' thing?"

All six of us cracked up at that.

********************************************

 _The insecure fashionista_  
_and his right hand man_  
_realized, for once, in their lives_  
_they never had a family plan_

I know what you're thinking.

_You're crazy, Alexander! How could you even consider sharing the space you claimed first, with those two?!_

_Especially with how that whole 'rumor' thing set you off..._

Okay, first off, it took a MONTH before these two even entered the picture, okay?!

Second, I don't hate them, per se, we just have really different opinions!

And third... Hey! People can change!

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were about to prove that exact thing to me, and they did so after that day's cabinet meeting.

George and I were heading down the hall, to the office. We were reminiscing over things that had happened in the house, including Herc's sudden contraction of a cold (he's fine now), Laf and John's new card game (they're still working out the kinks), not to mention Aaron's more-than-willingness to join the book we were starting. He's editing any mistakes that I make (he always tells me there's none or one, and it's never that important when there is one) and throwing in some stories about Theo. He said that someday, when the story gets told, he would find a way to smuggle her a copy. I told him that she would probably appreciate it.

I swung open the door. Thomas was sitting with his head down at his laptop. He wasn't snoring, but we could tell he was asleep. James, on the other hand, was sitting across from him, with his feet propped on the table, twiddling his thumbs. I rolled my eyes. No respect, I swear.

George cleared his throat. "Madison? Jefferson?"

James shrieked and scrambled to get his feet off the desk. Thomas woke up with a start.

"Oh, good morning, sir," they said at the same time: James in a frantic tone and Thomas in a sleepy one.

I couldn't help but giggle as I took my seat next to Thomas. I glanced over at this laptop. Endless notes littered the screen. Reading over some of them, I had to admit that they were phenomenal. I put a hand on his shoulder and he turned to look at me in confusion. "I know the feeling of working until you drop, Thomas. But these notes you have here are spectacular. You'll be just fine."

He gave me a small smile. "I appreciate the compliment, Alexander."

"At least you're working, Thomas. And as for _you_ , James," George said, taking the seat next to him, shooting him a sharp glare, "if I catch you with your feet on the table again there's going to be nastier consequences involved."

James pouted and sniffled (sick as usual). "You'd think he'd finally be comfortable enough to let us get away with little things like that."

Thomas and I shook our heads, and George just rolled his eyes.

"Not with you yet, son. Not yet," he said. I couldn't help but snicker.

As usual, the meeting couldn't go without me and Jefferson arguing about something. Oddly enough, this one was about family, and James even jumped into this one, and it only came about because of some simple off-handed comment George had made to me.

"Watch your language, son," George said when I cursed Charles Lee, once again, despite not really having no real problem with him, as I tended to do at every meeting, though most were under my breath, as this one had been. I think George has some super-hearing or something. "Must you always speak so poorly of Lee?"

"Must you always call me 'son'?" I asked, in a joking tone, of course, which George caught onto and rolled his eyes playfully in response. "And yes, I must. Sometimes he deserves such words."

Thomas rolled his own eyes, only more annoyed. "Ugh, you're so annoying sometimes, Alexander."

I raised an eyebrow, curiously. "Thanks for the insight, Captain Obvious. Now what made you suddenly bring this up?"

He was thrown off a bit there, probably because I admitted to myself being annoying. (Yes, I know I am, but no one ever wants to admit that about themselves.) He pointed between me and George. "Just the way you talk to Washington like you're mates or something. Why do you talk back and forth like you're related? I swear, you two are birds of a feather."

I chuckled. "Technically, _you two_ and him are the birds of the feather here, what with you all being from Virginia and all," I said. "Besides, being a Washington is quite the title to live up to." I shrugged as James's mouth dropped open and I turned to him. "Just ask Herc, Laf, John, and Aaron. They'll know it just as good as I do."

Thomas stood up and slammed his hands on the table. "I _knew_ the rumors were true! You _are_ living with them now! Tell me, did you do it to get another promotion? Maybe start talking badly about me behind my back?!"

"Dude, we _already_ do that, living with George and Martha doesn't change _that_ fact," I said with an eye roll. George and even James tried to stifle giggles. "And didn't you _start_ those rumors? Also, you know I take pride in my work! Why would I need special favors to get ahead?"

"You're always getting ahead without qualifications!" James suddenly shouted as Thomas simply sat back down and huffed. George and I raised eyebrows at that outburst. Despite knowing James was sick, the words he uttered didn't make him out to be that way. "You're a bastard, an orphan, and the son of a whore! You don't get any worse than that!"

It occurred to me that George hadn't even stopped us from arguing. I narrowed my eyes. "Been there, done that, heard the songs, and what does that have to do with anything?!" I snapped. "At least I have a family now! I wouldn't trade any of them for the world! What do you have?! Nothing, that's what!"

James widened his eyes. Thomas opened his mouth to say something, but he shut it again. He looked down sheepishly.

George reached over and touched my shoulder. "I think that's enough, Alexander."

I took deep breaths and calmed down. The meeting progressed a bit awkwardly after that. Thomas wrote down more notes with a melancholic face dottng his features. James sort of muttered everything he was saying in response to George who really didn't dwell on it much. All the while I was pulling at my hair, guilt gnawing away at me.

 _Why did I feel guilty?! And for Thomas, of all people?!_ For the rest of the meeting I couldn't fathom it. It wasn't until it ended, when Thomas took off running down the hall crying, when James was sulkily walking after him, that I figured it out.

"Wait!" I cried out, after hurrying down the hall after them. George went ahead and left because I told him that I would be a while. They turned back to me; Thomas hung his head and James fixed me with a sharp glare.

"What do you want, Hamilton?" James snapped.

I rolled my eyes. He was the only one that _still_ called me by last name regardless of circumstances. George and Thomas only did it when they were mad. Nevertheless, I took a deep breath and started again.

"I'm sorry."

Thomas raised his head and James raised an eyebrow in surprise. It's not like I don't ever apologize, but it's rare for me to do so to them.

I scratched my head and continued. "What I said was way out of line, and maybe I struck a nerve. I didn't mean it. You probably have had a better sense of family than I ever had. Once again, my mouth has gotten me into trouble."

Thomas approached me slowly and put a hand on my shoulder. "Truth be told, I can't say that for sure. I hardly remember much about my family. I lost sight of them a long time ago," he said. "I was young when I lost them. I can't even remember their faces..." He sniffled. "Pathetic, isn't it?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. "I can't really remember my family either. My mom passed away from fever, my brother disappeared, my cousin hung himself, and my dad..." I clenched my fists then. "He just left us. No rhyme or reason, he just walked out of our lives forever." Then I started to shake. "Then came the hurricane and everything really did fall apart for me. Everything I'd ever known - wiped out in a instant."

I didn't even realize I was crying until James walked up as well and gave the best side-hug he could manage. "That makes three of us. My parents went missing a long time ago and left me to my grandma. They never did come back for me, and then she passed away..." He sighed. "I was tossed into the foster care so many times until I could finally fend for myself."

Thomas and I both sniffled and raised two fingers. "Join the club."

If someone told me that I'd be consoling Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and hugging onto them like we were friends now, I would have punched them. Like I said, people can change!

It's at this point that Thomas decided to join our side hug, holding onto the other side of me. That's how we walked out of the building that day, arms around the shoulders all the way up to Washington's.

I knew that when Martha answered the door, with George and the other guys behind her with soft smiles, seeing us all arm-in-arm, that they had a good idea of what to expect.

********************************************

Thus, the adventure for family for us guys ends. I know what you're thinking though. What about the girls? When did they start to join up? Well, over the rest of the fall, we the men (with George and Martha) were going to have to play hero for a certain damsel in distress. Are you up for it?


	3. Maria (Almost) Stood Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How the gang and the Washingparents decided to team up to save Maria Reynolds from James, and accept her as one of their own.

_Whimpering and sniffling weakly_  
_Whipped and beaten almost weekly_  
_Blood so evident, from so far they can smell it_  
_We'd better let Alexander tell it_

There's never been anyone more unfortunate than Miss Maria Reynolds. We were all sure of it when we first saw her in Downtown Square, a few days after Thomas and James joined us.

Aaron told us about her. She's the model of an abused household woman with all the signs - black eyes, hoarse voice and dark marks from choking, bruises littered all across her skin, not to mention her tattered clothes. They're so prominent even the blind can see them.

Naturally, when we found out about it, we decided to question it. Her head was always down when she talked, like she was trying to hide from someone. On the third day that Thomas, Eliza and I met up with her just to hang out, we realized that it was exactly what she was doing. Hiding, I mean.

Enter James Reynolds. Aka number one jerk in any town ever (and we're comparing him to King George here; he's much much worse).

He had caught her with us and dragged her away. Then he had given us one of those stupid fake smiles and started talking in this unsoothingly fake voice: "I apologize. You privileged folks shouldn't be talking to some whore on the street. I've told her over and over not to do that."

"Oh, we don't mind talking to her," said Eliza. Thomas and I nodded in agreement. "Our friend Aaron Burr knows her, and he's right - she's absolutely lovely in conversation."

Maria blushed at this, turning away with a smile playing on her lips. James's smile faltered a little bit but he still kept it up. "You must be really bored then, if you indulge in what she has to say."

"And you might just be the most arrogant person I've ever met, and we know _Alexander_ ," Thomas said, with a bite in his voice, only letting it go when I playfully shoved him for that remark. "I'm kidding," he said to me. Then he turned back to James and the edge returned. "It's like Eliza said, there's nothing wrong with Maria. You must be extremely rude then, if you _don't_ care for what she has to say."

"Oh, you're just saying that," Maria said, albeit softly.

"No, we're not," I said. "You must come hang out with us and the rest of our squad sometime. We'd love to have you."

She looked up then. "I'd like that."

"You're not doing anything with these people," James spat. Honestly, no one even remembered he was there. "You have chores to do. Come along, dear."

And he dragged her away before we could say anything else on the matter. All three of us glanced around with worried expressions before heading back home.

********************************************

"Oh, Alexander, you can't always try to solve everyone's problems," said Angelica. "They're just not your problems to bear. You may not even have a solution for it."

It's only minutes later that all of us are huddled in the living room with the Schuylers here on a visit. Aaron was reading the paper, the rest of the Rev Set were playing a card game, James was in the kitchen, and Angelica and Peggy were lounging about on the couch when I suddenly flew through the door. All of them looked up at me in a second. John and Herc led me to the couch while Laf and James helped Thomas and Eliza who were panting hard from having tried to keep up with me.

I sighed. "I know, I know. I just feel so bad for Maria. I had a shot at family and didn't throw it away; shouldn't she have the same privilege as me or the rest of us?"

Lafayette, who had made his way back to the floor, propped himself up on his elbows. "I suppose, but do you think the Washingtons can handle another foster kid? _We_ are already enough as it is, non?"

"Maria's quieter," John, who was leaning against the couch near me, pointed out. "They'd probably appreciate the solitude for once."

We all laughed at that.

"Even so, what would even do about James?" asked Peggy. "If she wanted to leave a long time ago, he's probably the reason she can't do it."

Aaron nodded in agreement. "True. And have you seen her bruises?! Poor girl."

Eliza shuddered. "We can't leave her to suffer there; it's inhumane, just not right."

"So we're going with Alex's idea to try and get her out?" Thomas asked.

"Looks like it," said James, "but we can't do it right this second. We have to plan this out. That way he'll never see it coming."

"We can't stall for long though," Hercules said with a somber expression. He stood up from his own place on the floor and slammed a fist into his open palm. "I know from experience that waiting too long may lead to dire consequences. If we act too slow, it might be too late. Remember, timing is everything."

********************************************

The days flew by and it seemed to be getting worse for Maria. Now there's always a 20% chance that she'll burst into tears mid-conversation, and all of us present would wrap her up in a giant hug and try to make her feel better, except on the 5% chance that James might actually come over and rip her away from us before we got to do anything. It made us all want to punch James just thinking about it.

At least she could write us letters. Every three days she would write to us guys and it would be delivered to the Washingtons or to the White House if Thomas, James, and I were working. She sent letters to the girls every two days because James was less suspicious if she made it look like it was out to their father. (Phillip knows he's a suck up and an abuser and won't stand for it. Sometimes he gets letters from James and he and his daughters either spend time burning them, shredding them, or mocking him as they read it for entertainment. I wondered, if I asked the girls to bring some of them over, if we could do the same.)

At one point, George and Martha intercepted one of the letters she sent to us. It was my turn to get the mail, John said, but he'd come with me anyway. Maria's letters had been waning as of late but she had promised us a letter today for sure. When we got out there, George and Martha had returned from their time out at Uptown District (it's always quieter uptown) and had decided they might as well check it. Sometimes it's annoying when they do that, because sometimes some really embarrassing ones get sent through post to us, mostly from Samuel or Lee. Those two needed some hobbies.

It's one of those days where I'm glad they did it, or Maria might have already been dead.

They were shaking. "Who wrote you this letter?" George had asked. He was practically crushing it.

John and I looked at each other quickly and decided to tell him. Maria never signed any of her letters anymore, in case James tried to find them and bring them back (we've had that happen 6 times already).

"It's from Maria," John said.

"Maria Reynolds?" Martha's voice wavered a bit. We nodded, and then she asked, "Is she still okay?"

"Well, as fine as you can be living with James," I said, hoping I chose my words carefully. "Why? What did the letter say?"

George didn't say anything, merely uncrumpled the letter and handed it to me. As soon as I saw the first line in Maria's last letter my blood ran cold. I couldn't stay standing and fell to the floor onto my knees still holding the letter.

"Alex, what is it?!" John had yelled, shaking me by the shoulders. He looked up at the Washingtons, when I didn't - no, _couldn't_ \- say, "what did it say?!"

I broke out just long enough to automatically hand him the letter and shut down again. I could tell the exact moment he had read it; his grip on my shoulders tightened and he started screaming out sobs. I could do nothing except turn and hold him and the Washingtons joined us. Then George said, after many moments, "it might not be too late. We must go to her. Summon everyone else. Tell them a life is on the line here."

We nodded numbly, and ran inside, screaming the news to everyone else, who jumped out of their rooms ASAP with horrified looks upon their faces. It was silent between all of us afterwards, even when we ran to go fetch the Schuylers from their house. We didn't have to tell them. One look and you could tell they already knew.

_By the time you read this, I might already be gone._

********************************************

The carriages that Phillip arranged for us were practically flying along the rocky road as soon as we told the original drivers it was urgent. I'm surprised they even let the Washingparents drive them (they told us godspeed). In each there was 5 of us concerned friends and 1 of them steering. In the first carriage was John, Eliza, Lafayette, Thomas, and me with Martha at the reins. The second one, with Hercules, Aaron, Peggy, Angelica, and James with George steering, wasn't too far behind.

"Herc told us not to stall, and that's exactly what we did!" I screamed into my hands, but it still came out loud and clear, "she could be dead right now, and it would be all our fault!"

Lafayette grabbed me by my shoulders, "do not speak like that, mon ami! Why do you speak like we are running out of time?!"

"For our sake these horses better be non-stop," Eliza said sorrowfully, albeit a little bitter.

Once again, silence engulfed us for the rest of the journey.

********************************************

Everyone jumped out of the carriages and rushed to the door. Hercules was the one to ram it open revealing James sitting on the couch. He was on his feet in a second, looking at us with a cadence of surprise before his expression darkened.

"What the heck are you all doing here?!" he snapped. "Get out of here!"

"Where's Maria?!" Aaron and Eliza both screamed at the top of their lungs. "What have you done to her?!"

 _All_ of us were taken back by this. If there's anyone you never expect to raise their voice, let alone scream, it's Aaron, who was always levelheaded, and Eliza, who preferred taking the quiet way out.

James recovered from his shock and narrowed his eyes. "What are you talking about? She's fine."

I shoved the letter in his face. "No, she is NOT fine! Tell us what you did to her!"

He snatched the letter from me (almost ripping it!!) and read it over. He paled as he read it, which surprised the rest of us, but only momentarily before we got our wits about us.

"You're lying," he said, crumpling the letter in his fist, "she didn't write this. She's fine!"

He kept muttering to himself even when George and Martha ran upstairs to look. It wasn't until a shriek was heard that we all were on a dead run up the stairs.

The sight that welcomed us in the bathroom was an unsightly one indeed. In George and Martha's arms was Maria, breathing shallowly between sobs. In her right hand, with a deep cut at the wrist matching her reopened neck cut, was a 7 inch knife, with a blood coated tip. In her left hand was a bottle of pills only half full. Some had spilled onto the floor, but not enough to make us worry that she hadn't already swallowed most of them. Her eyes were closed.

"I'm sorry..." she started repeating, over and over. Her eyes then slowly opened, eyes falling on each of us. Seeing all of our worried expressions seemed to make her cry harder.

"What is wrong with you?!" James Reynolds yelled to her. He shoved past Eliza, Aaron and John but didn't get past Lafayette, Hercules, or me. All three of us stuck out our arms to stop him. Maria shrunk in further on herself, shivering now in the Washingtons' grip and very much awake.

"Get away from her," George snapped, voice dripping with venom. He lifted Maria off the ground and she held on as tight as she could, dropping the knife (which Laf caught to keep away from JR) and the pill bottle. "Don't even think about getting anywhere near her again, or Phillip and I will ruin you, you hear me?"

All he could do was stare as George carried Maria away to safety and the rest of us followed after. I was the last one to leave, and I turned back to face him. "You're lucky we didn't report you for this."

********************************************

Martha really appreciates being able to have actual girl talk. But, as usual, nothing good can every really stay, within the next few days the Schuylers come at us with more disturbing news and then we're all caught between a rock and a hard place. We really can't catch a break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay kudos ^_^


	4. The Schuyler Sisters: The Saddest of Us All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened when Angelica, Peggy, and Eliza Schuyler burst into the Washington household with disturbing news, followed up with more distress from Theodosia Prevost.

_Early in the afternoon_  
_Behind their wall_  
_Haunting news comes and they must_  
_Escape it all_

Out of all of us in the house, this addition to the family was the most shocking of all. Especially on two very specific accords.

Well, first and foremost, how could Phillip hate his daughters so easily?! Everyone knows how he's never turned down things the girls believed in, and anything they've said to him has never been inappropriate. There had to be another sinister reason why they're not in the house. (Granted, they do tell us later, but for now us guys and Maria have been grasping at straws to figure it out.)

And second, because it helped lead to... The Treasonous Event.

Don't worry, all in good time, I'll explain it. Just focus on what's going on right now.

It was a peaceful day (as peaceful as you can get around here) when Angelica, Eliza, and Peggy Schuyler attacked the door. Once again, George and Martha were out, and all 8 of us were once again situated in the downstairs area.

"What's going on?" I asked, sitting up straight and looking up from our book. So far, the book had 14 personal stories (including Sam's, Lee's and Theo's that they sent to us via letters) with some fiction (from Herc and James) and PSAs (from Maria). We were still trying to find one more thing to set it over the top, and right now I was helping Aaron, who was reading over my shoulder from behind the armchair, look for mistakes.

" _This_ time?" John added. He and James were poking their heads out from the kitchen entryway.

All three sisters were trying their best to breathe as it seemed they ran all the way from wherever they came from, probably from home. Each of them was wearing a messenger bag over their shoulders showing off their signature colors, and Angelica carried two walkie talkies in addition.

"What's with the bags and walkie talkies?" asked Hercules, from his place atop the coffee table, where he had been singing just a bit earlier. The Washingparents had very specific instructions of us not jumping onto any of the furniture because they're worried we'd hurt ourselves even if we told them we'd be fine. Of course, they'd be a bit miffed if we broke anything, though.

Eliza got her breath back first and was the one to speak up. "Papa gave us some very disturbing news about our friends in the kingdom. Lee had to sneak out a few days ago and give us these because he says Sam can't be outside now and he and Theo aren't allowed to write any letters anymore; King George broke their quills and hid the paper."

"What?!" cried Lafayette and Maria at the same time. They were on the floor styling each other's hair, as well as Thomas's, who was enjoying a mac and cheese bowl at the moment right in front of them.

"They sent some men down here to question Theo's family," said Peggy. "I don't know why they did that; if anything, Theo's family should be questioning _them_."

"You'd think," I say. "Hey, Angelica, your walkie talkie's ringing static."

"Huh?" she says, before looking down. "Oh!" She turns a few dials on it and then holds the talk button. "Hello?"

"Angelica?" Two wavering voices came from each device.

She gasped. "It's Samuel and Theo!" As soon as she said this, everyone started to congregate around her. Angelica handed me one of the devices, and everyone gathered in two groups around us. "What's going on? Are you guys okay?"

"It's torture over here!" Samuel, who was on the talkie I was carrying, wailed. "I can't even write stories for entertainment anymore! All I do is sit at the right side of George as he gossips about with all the other mistresses. I'm telling you, there's nothing worse than hearing their incessant chatter all day long."

"And I can't even be with them in the throne room anymore," said Theo, her voice flowing through Angelica's device. "He's banished me to rot away in his room until he needs me. He's never tried anything... explicit with me, so I'm always just either hopping around making a fool of myself or constantly fetching him things on whatever whim strikes. I've never felt more sore."

"What about Lee?" asked Lafayette, to either of them. "How does he fare?"

Collective sighs came from the two. "Worse than us, I would guess," said Sam. "George caught him on the castle grounds and then found out about the walkie talkie thing. You know how he feels about people against him in the war, right?"

"Yeah..." said Thomas, albeit uneasily. "Have you seen him as of late?"

"We see him all the time, but not in a good light," Theo said. "He's captured him and put him in the dungeon; he's torturing him until he 'obeys' him like he believes Sam does and sometimes we have to watch it." We could practically hear the air quotes in her voice.

"Oh, god, he's coming! Quick, hide them!" cried Sam. It went quiet for a while before Theo came back in a whisper through my device this time. "We'll contact you guys when the coast is clear."

The connection cut off, and we all looked at each other worriedly. It's silent for a while before Maria breaks the silence.

"God," she said, "and I thought I had it bad with James... I don't think I'd be able to stand living a situation like that."

The rest of us nodded. Being deprived of basic entertainment such as writing, or even your autonomy, was definitely not a way to go.

"How long can you guys stay?" James asked suddenly, turning to the sisters. Eliza scratched her head.

"That's another thing," she said. "Papa told us that we might have to stay here for a while, but he didn't tell us why."

John shrugged. "The more the merrier, I guess. I'm pretty sure George and Martha wouldn't mind you guys joining us."

"Speaking of them," Peggy said, "where are they?"

Hercules said, "they stepped out, but that was hours ago! They should have been back by now..."

"I am sure they must have gotten carried away in their activities," said Laf. "They never stay out past 8, and it is only 4 now."

James smiled a bit. "Yeah, let's enjoy these unmoderated 4 hours while we have them," he said. "Come on, John, let's go back to the kitchen and see what we can whip up."

"Ooh, let me help too!" said Eliza, who put down her bag on the couch and hurried after them.

Maria giggled. "Well, they're handling cuisine, so Laf and I are going to go back to hair styling. Laf's doing Thomas's after he does mine; who wants me to do something with their hair after I do his?"

"Me!" said Peggy. She set her bag beside Eliza's and plopped down beside Maria, watching Laf work and occasionally snatching some of Thomas's macaroni out of the bowl, earning surprised squeaks from him in turn.

Herc holds up his sewing kit. "I'm going to see if I can get inspired for some new clothes; anyone want to help me?"

"I will!" said Angelica. She set her bag down by the coffee table. "Hey, Alex, you and Aaron want to help too?"

"Sure," I said, and Aaron nodded. "We could use a break."

********************************************

By the time it was 10:30 at night, the following developments were realized:

\- John, James, and Eliza emerged from the kitchen after an hour an a half carrying all sorts of baked goods: cookies, brownies, cake, you name it! They would be good enough to get famous on a food radio station if the King wasn't so self centered about the radio.

\- Maria was sporting a full set of tiny curly braids across her head; Lafayette let his bun down and got it re-textured; Thomas now owned a much shorter afro; and Peggy carried a French braid. The two stylists promised to do everyone else's hair tomorrow, hopefully with different ideas in mind.

\- Hercules almost fell asleep sewing but we kept him going and awake; he put together super soft pajamas for all four of us (Angelica's came in the form of a dress and Herc sewed shorts for his own. Mine carried short sleeves and Aaron's bore none - he doesn't really mind the cold). We told him we'd help keep him awake if he planned to make everyone else their own set later.

\- The Schuylers got themselves squared away in terms of rooms and their stuff, and we sort of switched up our original sleep arrangements. The Washingparents squared away three rooms for all of us upstairs - with the girls joining up, two rooms now had four of us and one room would have three. We switched up so there was one sister in each room now, and the arrangement is as follows: in the room by the back stairs - Angelica, Aaron, John, and Thomas; in the room directly above the Washingparents': Maria, James, Hercules, and Peggy; in the room between the attic and the balcony: Lafayette, Eliza, and me.

\- Speaking of George and Martha, they aren't back yet (we noticed at 8:30). They've done this only once before, and they had sent us a letter explaining why at the time. Laf and I kept looking out the window in case someone delivered one but no one did. We were all getting worried.

\- By 10:00, we've all congregated in their giant master bedroom because none of us can sleep knowing that they weren't back. I had planned on going there by myself and Laf and Eliza were originally going to tell me not to go when they caught me because I hardly sleep as it is, and then I gave a compelling argument that they had to agree with me on and decided to go with me down there. We ran into Aaron and John in the hall; they were planning the same thing. Then we saw Angelica and Thomas coming back up after getting water from themselves and convinced them to tag along. By the time we set up camp with our blankets and such, the remaining four came down and joined us because they could easily hear us all from their room. We wanted to stay up, of course, but being up quite late really takes its toll on you, and we finally started dropping off in reverse order; the sisters were the first to go, at 10:10, then Maria, then Thomas and James, then Aaron, Herc, Laf, John, and finally me at exactly 10:30.

********************************************

I think it's at this point we realized that we were going to need a serious emotional pick-me-up to make ourselves feel better. And we were going to get just that - in the form of our own surprise visit. Heed my words, things might finally be looking up again.


	5. Non-Stop Samuel, Suspicion, and Torture

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day that the Revelationaries finally meet Samuel Seabury in person and hang around with him; helping him get back to the kingdom despite his reluctance; seeing Charles Lee and Theodosia Prevost again; hearing some new information on the statuses of the Washingparents, Henry Laurens, and Phillip Schuyler... before having to camp out at the kingdom and get into the daily rhythm and rhyme.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter fuels The Treasonous Event, as saving the people in question was part of the reason that they did what they did.

_Heed the poor young man_  
_That screams revelation_  
_Unable to conjure a plan_  
_still tries to resist the temptation_

I noticed I still had my glasses on from yesterday. I sat up from my position on the floor against the foot of the bed and rubbed my head furiously as I removed them. Great, now I had a furious headache.

"Are you okay, Alex?" asked Thomas from the armchair kept in the far right corner of the room away from the door.

I turned to face him. "Yeah. I just fell asleep with my glasses on again, and let me tell you, it's pain."

On the left side of me, Aaron sat up yawning and stretching. "Lord, what time is it? I feel like it's too early to have any conversations."

"It's 11 in the morning," called James's sleepy voice from on top of the bed, "if anything, it's kind of late."

"I can't believe we spent the night in here," said Hercules, who was camped out in the doorway of the open closet.

"I can," said Lafayette, who was slumped against the closed bathroom door. "Every thing is super comfortable in here! I would never leave, if given the chance."

All the aforementioned giggled at Lafayette's statement. Eliza, who was perched atop the couch on the little elevated part of the room, asked, "Wait. Did they ever come back last night?"

John, who was right next to her, said, "We don't know. If they did come back, though, maybe they just didn't want to wake us and slept elsewhere."

Maria and Peggy both yawned, shrieking as they almost rolled off the bed themselves, being on the edges while James was in the middle. Meanwhile, Angelica was parked across the makeshift steps separating Eliza and John from the rest of us, arms spread wide, feet up in the air and twirling them.

"Maybe we got some mail when it was really late out and we fell asleep," she said. "Alex and I can go check that out. And then our confectionery trio -" she pointed at John, Eliza, and James as she said it "- can handle breakfast while the rest of you start cleaning up in here." She rolled on her back to her feet. "We wouldn't want to leave this place a mess."

********************************************

The letter we were left with, when Angelica and I went to investigate, was unsettling to say the least. It told us that George was away on business and wasn't sure when he would be back. Granted, I had seen these types of trips before with him, having been on some of them with the rest of the Rev Set, but the worrying part was the fact that Martha would have to have been with him. If this was business then why did she have to go too? And if she didn't go then why wasn't she back yet? Something was afoot, but there was nothing we could do about it.

We got a call from Theodosia a while later, who was worried about Sam, who snuck out yesterday as soon as King George left on trip and was not back even though he said the trip would be days and that's why Sam left anyway, and then the King sent a letter saying he would be back before the day ended, plans change, and she begged us please to go find Sam and send him back or the King would send her and Lee away to one of his worse torture chambers or kill them both if he never came back, and then slaughter him if he were to come back after him; that's what he beat into her head (after giving her a whack upside the head). She described him to us, knowing we had never seen him, and told us Godspeed and that he might be in the uptown district because he just wanted some quiet. We left as quickly as we could.

********************************************

We finally met him at the Main Town Square one day. And boy, if you saw his face, you'd see why we had to cheer him up.

All of us were looking around the Sqaure, trying to blend in as best we could as none of us were usually not caught up here at any point. Nothing against it, we just weren't always about the quiet.

John, Maria, and I were up a pretty maple tree in the middle of the Sqaure, admiring the prettiness of the leaves while still looking for Samuel. (I did manage to write down a little story about the Square alone - how interesting that quiet gives great inspiration.)

Angelica was leaning against the tree with her arms crossed, watching an adamant wordless conversation across the way at the bakery with Lafayette, who was sitting down against it right next to her. Hercules was on his knees, staring into the town fountain only a few feet away, trying to guess people's wishes, along with James and Aaron who sat on the edge of the fountain on either side of him.

Thomas, Eliza, and Peggy approached us from the bakery carrying rolls and brownies for all of us to snack on. Peggy was falling behind Thomas and Eliza, and ran to catch up, only to crash into a person coming in from another way. He managed to help her save all the treats she was carrying. The rest of us started to approach them.

"I'm sorry!" Peggy said immediately. "I should have looked where I was going."

The boy looked even paler in the face and he scratched his ginger-blonde hair nervously. "No, no, it's my fault, honestly. I wasn't even looking myself."

Peggy tilted her head. "Are you Samuel Seabury?"

He looked startled, but still spoke anyway. "That depends, who's asking?"

"Hey, that's my line," Aaron said, with a snicker. He made his way upfront. "I'm Aaron Burr, and that's Peggy Schuyler right here that you ran into."

He widened his eyes. "Do I by any chance know the rest of you?"

"We'd hope. I'm Alexander Hamilton," I said with a bow. Then I gestured beside me to Thomas, Hercules, and Angelica who were right beside me. "This is Thomas Jefferson, that's Hercules Mulligan, and here is Angelica Schuyler."

Then Eliza took up the rest of the introductions for the people near her, pointing at everyone as their names were called. "And here we also have John Laurens, Gilbert de Lafayette, Maria Reynolds, and James Madison. I'm Eliza Schuyler." She curtsied. "It's nice to finally meet you in person."

"Theodosia told us we might find you here," said Lafayette. "She wanted us to tell you to hurry back."

He raised an eyebrow. "Why? Is it about the King? We're not expecting him back for a few days, right?"

"The plans have changed, I'm afraid," said Angelica. "He's expected back in some hours time, before the sun goes down, and dire consequences may befall your fellow captives if you're not there before him."

"What did Theo say? What is he planning to do to her and Lee?" asked Sam. His voice was suddenly shaking.

Eliza bit her lip. "He'll send them away," she said. "Or kill them, whichever comes first."

"Oh no!" Samuel cried out. "Tell Theo I'll head back right away. I had to leave my walkie talkie behind, as the guards were too suspicious of it."

"Let us come with you, at least," said Aaron. "It would be nice to see Theodosia again."

"Lee as well," said Hercules. Sam smiled, then noted, "Just as long as we get you guys out of here before the sun sets. We don't want the possibility of any more heads rolling."

After sending Theo the message, Sam led us down the path from the Uptown District to the little kingdom slice that the King possessed, which was well hidden so others couldn't just waltz up on the kingdoms when they wanted. As soon as we reached the doors, they swung open and the guards peered at us curiously.

"Who are these people, Seabury?" one of them asked.

"Visitors of the King," he replied quickly without hesitation. "He has requested me to fetch them before his arrival at the sunset and to get them situated immediately. It's very urgent."

They stared a bit longer before stepping aside. "Very well."

He led us down the long hall and up the grand staircase to the King's room by the hall where the balcony was, and already I was sick of seeing the color red. Sam knocked softly on the door and a gasp was heard behind it. "Who's there?" called a muffled voice beyond the door so familiar.

"Don't worry, it's me," said Sam, "and I've brought company."

"What kind?" the voice asked nervously.

"Nothing bad, I promise."

"Come in, then."

Sam pushed the door open gently, and we all walked in single file. Theodosia was kneeling at the foot of the bed with her head buried in her hands. Her left arm has a giant gash across it, and her right was littered with less severe bruises. She looked up at the sound. Her right eye had a long scar running across it. Her dress was in tatters strewn about the floor. All of us gasped; she was equally just as surprised. Aaron broke out of the stupor before everyone else; he ran from the doorway and embraced Theodosia.

"Oh, what he has done to you..." he moaned. The rest of us moved into the room and took a seat on whatever we could find, looking on anxiously.

"He's harder on her than me," Samuel said, rolling up his own sleeves. Each of his arms had an angry scar running from his hands all the way up, possibly to his shoulders. "Lee may be the only one who has it worse."

As if on cue, a series of sniffles were heard from the far corner of the room by the large window. I approached it slowly to see a pile of blankets. I moved them to see what they were covering, and was ultimately stunned to see a thoroughly beaten Charles Lee in the corner, curled up into a ball and shaking. He looked up when he saw the light. I was stunned. "Lee?' I asked curiously.

He nodded tersely. I didn't even know what to even say to him until a voice spoke up from behind.

"I let him out," said Theodosia. "It took a lot of convincing those guards down there to let him out at least until King George came back. He was too scared to even leave the darkness of the dungeon so I had to lead him up here. He ran into the room on his own accord, though, and buried himself with those sheets, mumbling something about not deserving to see the light."

"I don't... get it," said Lee, and from how his voice barely escaped I would say he probably hadn't talked since he got down in the dungeon in the first place, possibly months ago. "How am I still here?"

Hercules came up to the corner and lifted the poor dejected soul out of it and onto the bed and all of us surrounded him and it. "Lee, look at us," I said. He made an attempt but he looked pained. "Look, we're here, and we promise that we're going to break you out of here someday."

Lee shook his head. "I fear there's no hope for me. Them, maybe." He gestured to Theo and Sam. "They have a bit more freedom than I do, they can escape if given the chance. Not me. I'm on constant surveillance from the King's loyal guard battalion."

" _Charles,_ " Eliza said firmly, causing him to look at her in surprise, partially because of her tone and partly because she called him by his first name (no one really does that anymore), "stop thinking that there's no hope for you! We're not leaving you behind. That's not something we do around here."

Once again, Lee was shaking. Lafayette stood up and opened the big window. "I think we all deserve a break, do we not? Let us go outside and enjoy the sun while it is still up."

********************************************

The only silver lining to being stuck in the kingdom seemed to be coming outside and enjoying the lovely view. And, of course, having friends to enjoy it with. All fourteen of us were doing something outside on the lawn, away from the watchful view of the guards. Hercules had, as usual, come prepared with his trusty deck of cards, and was engaged in a game with James, Maria, Samuel and Angelica. Aaron and Theodosia were up in the grand apple tree, snacking on apples while catching up on each other's lives. Peggy, Lafayette, and Thomas were simply dancing about on the lawn - a sunset dance, they called it. Meanwhile, Eliza, John, Lee and I were laying back on the soft grass in a cross formation where our heads were towards the center. All of us were linked at the hands as we counted clouds and pointed out the shapes inside of them.

"I couldn't even remember anything else outside torture," said Lee. He sat up and looked at all three of us in turn. "I'm remembering now. It's simply satisfying."

I sat up as well and slung an arm around Lee. "We have to do something about this. Setting you guys free, I mean," I clarified, when Lee tilted his head at me in confusion. "We're going to come up with a plan and get you out of here. That way you guys could be much happier all the time."

Lee smiled. "We can only hope. But I think I'd be willing to wait for it, knowing it were a possibility."

Eliza and John both eventually sat up. John threw an arm around me and Eliza threw hers over Lee; we all sat, arm in arm, watching all of our friends be their ridiculous selves and laughed. This is how people should live. It's not about the money, or the power. It's always about your friends. You could have all the things you wanted, but I'd consider you poor if you were lonely.

There was a shriek coming from the tree, and all four of us turned to look. Aaron and Theodosia were lying faceup at the base of the tree, apparently having fallen out. They scrambled quickly to their feet. Then suddenly, Theodosia took off running towards the back entry way of the castle, with Aaron following closely behind her.

"Oh god, we lost track of time!" she shrieked, and Aaron said, "what do we do now?"

"What's going on?" I asked, unlooping from John and Lee before standing up and catching up with them.

"The sun's setting!" Theo replied briskly. "King George will be back any minute now!"

I went pale, and a quick turn back told me that Eliza, John, and Lee were doing the same. "Ohhhhh nooooo..." Lee moaned, from his place on the ground, holding his head in his hands. Eliza still held onto him, comforting him, and John jumped up, relaying the news to the others, who had immediately stopped what they were doing to gape .

"Do we even have enough time to sneak out of here?" asked Angelica.

Just as she said that, horns sounded from the front of the castle. All of us widened our eyes, and John, Eliza, Lee, and I paled even further.

"No! We have no time!" Peggy screamed. "What do we do now?!" she asked, repeating Aaron's earlier question.

"First things first, we have to get Lee back down to the dungeon," Sam said grimly, looking guilty when Lee shrunk in on himself. "Then Theo's got to get back to the room and fix it so he's not suspicious. And I've got to find good hiding places for all of you, before I'm forced to be expected in the throne room." He looked at all of us, fear in his eyes. "Let's move!"

In single file, we all started at a dead run towards the castle.

********************************************

"What did the King tell you to do with your new captives?"

Thomas and I were hiding in a secret compartment under the floorboards of the throne room, standing back to back in the quite snug crawl space. We were the only ones willing to tolerate such super confined spaces, and we were quite glad with our choice, as we could hear everything that was going on above. Granted, most of it was either incessant gossip or reprimands for Sam, but as soon as the guards came in talking about captives, our ears perked up. _Who else could the King be holding hostage at this point?!_

"We have to get info out of them, he's curious to know about their kids. He knows Theo and Sam 'secretly' talk to them. Like they think they're so discrete. He has more talkies; guess they didn't know."

We both gasped but kept them quiet. We didn't want them to hear us.

"Why didn't he stop them?"

"Because he needed info. Those people that they talk to are quite influential in their sector of the land. He wants to take them down before they do any damage to his reign. He already got Lee; he's got a lead on some of the others since Sam and Theo never really say their names over the transmission."

"Who?"

"Angelica, Elizabeth, and Margarita Schuyler, and also John Laurens. We've got their fathers here for questioning. He insisted we could torture the living daylights out them for their info, but we can't kill them. If it comes to that, he'll do it himself."

"Oh my god...." Thomas whispered. "That's must be why Phillip told them to come stay with us! He must have known this was coming!"

"It would look like it," I said. "And let's hope that Henry doesn't know much, if not anything. We don't want John to get caught here with Lee, Sam, and Theo."

"Same goes for the Schuylers, but Phillip wouldn't do that to them," Thomas added. "He'd sooner die than betray his daughters."

One of the guards shrieked. "I think we have rats in the floorboards."

"Oh please, you're so chicken! Tell me why he has you going down there with him instead of me?"

"Because I can handle gore. Just not squeaking sounds like that."

"Hey!" A new guard entered the room, standing on the hole in the hidden door we were using to have light. "We have new captives! And if our Majesty's hunches are right, they are the key to finding out the indentities of the rest of those rebels."

"Are you serious?! Who did he get?!"

"George and Martha Washington."

That's when my blood ran cold. _That's why they never came back! They were kidnapped!_ Thomas grabbed one of my hands from his position. I could feel his hand shaking in mine.

"We sent them a letter telling them that George would be away for some time. They wouldn't worry about much about where Martha went, so we left that out. They'll destroy themselves having lost their sense of family and eventually give up the fight! We could get Sam and Theo to bait them."

I widened my eyes. They would never do such a thing.

"So if they give up the fight, do they get their parents back?"

"Not unless they swear loyalty and promise to never flee the country. We can get some people to go keep an eye on them, gain their trust, slowly rid them of their crazy ideals until we make Britain great again. If we get them brainwashed enough they can spread the message to their people down there."

"Tell me why the king made a little slice of home here in the colonies again?"

"Because if there's one thing he hated, it was all the people complaining that he was too far away to be telling people what to do and so he moved. He's got people taking care of Britain while he's away, but he's already promised them that, someday, he'll be back."

"Excuse me?" Theo's familiar voice rang out. "The King has requested all of you downstairs at once, to give you more orders, I believe."

"Noted, Miss P. Let's go, boys."

For the longest time it was silent. Then light poured in from above, and Theo stuck her head in over the opening.

"You guys okay down there?" she asked.

"More or less," said Thomas. "We just heard some disturbing news."

"Oh? Like what?"

"He's holding our parents hostage!" I whisper-shouted. Theo's eyes widened; she knew what I meant.

She reached inside and pulled me out of the hole, and then I turned and helped her get Thomas out.

"Anything else?" she asked worriedly.

"Uh, just that King George knows you've been talking to us, just not very much about us. He's trying to use our parents to get our names and brainwash us to his stupid views."

Theo pinched the bridge of her nose. "Getting you out of here is now top priority, along with finding out exactly where the King is keeping your parents. You can count on me and Samuel for that. Now, onto what we have to do now." Theo started walking and gestured for us to come after her. "Sam wanted me to escort you to the room you'll be hiding in until you can make a safe escape out of here. We have to get the others first, though, and get you guys some disguises."

********************************************

" _How the heck does anyone wear this stupid getup?!_ " Thomas shouted from one of the upstairs broom closets.

Theo and I both had to slap a hand across his mouth to shut him up. Any louder and the guards would actually have to do their jobs and investigate. We had to thank our lucky stars that Samuel had to go find out instead.

"Jesus Christ," he said, looking at Thomas's floppy hat and neon green and yellow striped outfit, before noticing my chef's hat and coat, "do I even want to know?"

"Nope," I said, quietly, shaking my wooden spoon in the air. "Why did I have to be the chef? John and James could pull this off better. Heck, even Eliza would put me to shame!"

"And what does King George need with a court jester anyway?" Thomas snapped, crossing his arms, "does he not already get enough entertainment around here? Ow!" he exclaimed when Theo slapped him for that remark. "Nothing against you, Theo! Just... why does he think this is necessary?"

"'Necessary' is not a word our 'dear king' knows," Sam said when we all stepped out into the hall. Theo was still wearing a tattered dress, but the color was navy blue instead of maroon and there were less holes.

The king was down in the basement with most of the guards and some of the them were on the ground floor, but Sam had taken precaution to hide us upstairs so it would be easier to slip around without being seen. Still, the disguises we were supposed to be wearing would be our failsafes.

He led us into the grand upstairs dining hall ("better than the downstairs one - since he dines down there we dine up here, and let me tell you, it's a nice break," Theo said) where three knight suits stood against a nearby wall. Sam looked around twice, then tiptoed to the suits and knocked on them gently.

Thomas shrieked a little when one of the arms on the closest one to us moved, and this time it was Sam who slapped a hand over his mouth to quiet him. The helmet was opened, and John's face popped out of the opening. "It's so hot in here!" he said. "Why did we agree to this again?"

Next to him, Eliza popped up, to the best of her ability. "I have no idea. I can barely see out of this as it is."

"At least the clothes we changed into before we slipped into them are nice enough," said James, beside her. "Does the King usually make people hide out in suits in this manner?" he asked Sam.

"Sometimes," he said. "I don't know why, though."

"So he can play practical jokes on guests, like the castle is haunted or something," Theo said with an eye-roll. "He couldn't be more childish if he tried."

The three knights slipped out of the metal chambers, revealing silvery outfits and hats with giant red feathers much like their metallic counterparts beside them.

"OMG, trade ya in a heartbeat," Thomas said with a scowl. All of us laughed at that.

"Let's keep moving," said Theo.

********************************************

"Herc! Laf! Can you hear me?" Theo called up to the giant trophy shelf, constructed as if it were for giants.

It towered 7 shelves high, and carried many gold and silvery things. Laf was perched on the top shelf, behind a giant silver chalice, while Herc was at the bottom, frozen in a flexed muscle pose beside a gold trophy posed in a similar manner. Both of them were covered head to toe in the color of the item there were closest to. They both glanced over when Theo called out. Herc lowered his arms and Laf stood up from behind the giant fancy cup.

"I'd still trade them," said Thomas.

"Finally you guys are here. Holding that position was killing me," said Herc. "You should have seen all the people coming in and out of here just to gawk at me."

"Can you blame them?" Laf supplied, peeking out from behind the chalice, "you are a sight to behold, after all."

Herc blushed, "oh Laf, you're too much sometimes."

I laughed, "come on, they want to show us where we're staying!"

Laf grabbed onto the shelves like a ladder, lowering himself slowly until he slipped halfway. He would have hurt himself if Herc wasn't there to catch him (which we promptly teased him for).

 _Nine down, five to go,_ I thought, as I thought of Lee, who was stuck in the dungeon, and Angelica, Peggy, Maria, and Aaron, who we were yet to find.

Some guards came in our direction and we ducked into a nearby hallway. We heard what they said as they passed.

"Hey, did you hear about those new mistresses? They just came in today!"

"Of course I heard about them! I can't believe the new guy was entrusted with watching them!"

"He's probably trying to get them all for himself, but he seriously doesn't even look like the type."

As soon as they walked off, we gave Sam and Theo, who were giggling at the conversation, curious looks. "What was that about?" Thomas asked.

"You'll see," they both said, leading us down the hall.

We arrived at a velvety purple pair of swinging double doors. Theo pushed them open and all people in the room jumped immediately, relaxing when they saw us. Three of them were wearing veils over their faces and the fourth carried a helmet atop their head. As soon as they removed their head garments, once again Thomas said, "Can I just switch with someone right now?! Don't even care who!"

"I take it someone's not very pleased with their disguise," said Aaron, who was wearing an outfit similar to the guards'.

"Neither am I," said Maria, who was back in a red dress for the first time since we took her in. "I feel like I took one giant step backwards in my life and that James should be bursting in here any second now."

"We'll tell you later," I said, when Theo and Sam gave us weird looks. "So what do we do?"

Sam crossed his arms. "You'll be able to sneak out of here by dark. If you absolutely need something outside of this room today, use your disguises to help you stay blended in." He tossed me and Maria some rope. "Use this rope if you want to get out of here. Climb out through the back window."

We nodded. Sam tossed us some new walkie talkies; they looked different from the ones that the King possessed. "Better safe than sorry. I'd rather not have him trying to listen in on any of our conversations."

"I'm afraid he's already done that," said Thomas, "he's got our parents held hostage, and is planning to brainwash us with thoughts of the loyalists."

"What?!" everyone else screamed at the same time, as quietly as they could muster.

"Theo and Sam promised to help find them, wherever they are in here. We can't risk staying here another day, though." I peered out the window. "I think the guards are starting to get onto us."

"You mean finally doing their jobs," Theo piped up. All of us laughed at the trueness of the statement. It was cut short, however, by a loud yell coming from two floors down.

"SAMUEL! MISS P! Come down here right now!! We have a meeting of the highest order!!" came the voice that was no doubt King George. Sam and Theo exchanged grim looks. "Duty calls," Theo muttered, and Sam nodded in agreement. "We'll see you guys later," she said over her shoulder as she and Sam hurriedly left the room.

Eliza took her hat off to scratch her head. "What do you think he's calling them for?" she asked.

"I hope we didn't leave any clues to tip off our presence," said John.

********************************************

Night fell, and Sam and Theo never came back up; they did manage to contact us through our new walkie talkies though, telling us we should leave while we could and them promising us to get updates on the Washingparents, Henry, and Phillip, us promising that we'd work our hardest to come up with a plan. As we silently snuck out down the ropes I couldn't help but still feel bad for Sam, Theo, and Lee, and their miserable circumstances. And now there was our parents' captures to think about. I thought back to what Thomas and I overheard under the floorboard. Would they out their own kids, at the cost of their lives? The true test of loyalty was about to be at stake here.


	6. Theodosia and Lee: Undercover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The summary of Theodosia Prevost and Charles Lee's reports to the whereabouts of the Hamilsquad's parents; what happens when John Laurens, Maria Raynolds, and Alexander Hamilton are taken away to royal grounds; the death of one of the adults and torture of the rest.

_Raise a glass to the fourteen of us_  
_if we're lucky, there'll be more of us_  
_Sometimes, unspoken wishes come true_  
_just not in the way we expected them to_

It's strange not waking up to George or Martha's voices anymore. Instead, we're forced to wake up to the fact that they were caught and there was nothing we could do about it for now, and that thought alone was enough to make me wake up crying and screaming uncontrollably with Lafayette and Eliza trying to calm me down from both sides, reminding me that my sense of family isn't totally lost.

We all sat at the grand dining table, five of us on one side and six of us on the other with the head chairs staying empty because no one could bring themselves to sit there. Despite the lovely breakfast laid out in front of us by our confectionery trio, we were all too upset to eat. A few of us picked at our food while the rest of us ate in silence. Lafayette, all the more unsettled by the sad silence, tried to do what he did best, and attempted to cheer us all up with some of our favorite songs we enjoyed singing sometimes. (Granted, they had odd names half the time, but hey! They're catchy songs anyway!)

"Hey, Alexander?" he asked me from across the table. I was sitting directly in front of him, eyes trained on my food until he spoke. I looked up. "What is that song that we used to sing at the bar all the time?"

"Which one?" Aaron interjected beside me before I could say anything. "There were two, weren't there?"

"Mm hmm," I said. "There was 'My Shot' and 'Aaron Burr, Sir'. Which one were you talking about, Laf?" By now everyone else looked up, curious as to what was going on.

Laf thought for a moment. "I believe it is the one where Herc, John, and I introduce ourselves and Aaron shows you around."

"Okay, so 'Aaron Burr, Sir'. Why do you ask?"

He didn't answer, just started tapping out a beat. At first I was confused; then I realized he was tapping out the beat to the very same song.

"1776," the girls chorused, along with Thomas and James.

I laughed, and then Hercules, Lafayette, and John joined afterward, singing, "New York City!"

I tapped on Aaron beside me. "Pardon me, are you Aaron Burr, sir?"

He narrowed his eyes playfully. "That depends, who's asking?"

"Oh, sure, sir!" I said, backing off a bit. "I'm Alexander Hamilton - I'm at your service, sir. I've been looking for you!"

Aaron tilted his head. "I'm getting nervous..."

"Sir, he heard your name at Princeton," Maria sung, jumping in, "and was seeking an accelerated course of study, when he got sort of out of sorts with a buddy of yours."

Eliza shrugged. "He may have punched him; it's a blur, sir. He handles the financials?"

Thomas fanned himself dramatically. "He punched the bursar??"

"Yes!" I shouted, taking over again. "I wanted to do what you did, graduate in two and join the revolution! He looked at me like I was stupid; I'm NOT stupid!"

"So how'd you do it?" James inquired. "How'd you graduate so fast?"

Angelica sighed. "It was his parents' dying wish before they passed."

"You're an orphan?!" I shrieked, startling Aaron a bit. "Of course! I'm an orphan! God, I wish there was a war so we could prove we were more than anyone bargained for!"

Aaron chuckled then, handing me my juice on the table. "Can I buy you a drink?"

I smiled showing all my teeth. "That would be nice."

"While we're talking, let me offer you some free advice," he said, and then slammed his own drink on the table. "Talk less."

I raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Smile more." Aaron made the movement with his hands.

"Heh," I chuckled awkwardly.

He put his hands on my shoulders. "Don't let them know what you're against or what you're for."

I tilted my head. "You can't be serious..."

"You wanna get ahead?" he asked.

I sighed. "Yes."

"Fools who run their mouths up wind up dead..." said Aaron, taking his hands away and then John jumped in, finally, with his part.

"Ayo-yo-yo-yo! What time is it?!" he shouted, and then joined Lafayette and Hercules moments later: "SHOWTIME!!"

Aaron rolled his eyes. "Like I said..."

"Showtime, showtime, ha!" John stood up and threw his hands up in the air. "I'm John Laurens in the place to be! Two pints of Sam Adams, but I'm working on three!"

"HA!" Everyone else shouted out at the same time.

"Those redcoats don't want it with me, cuz I will praa-chicka-praa those cops 'till I'm free!" he continued, before Laf pushed him back down into his seat.

"Oui, oui, mon ami, je m'appelle Lafayette!" he said, striking a pose, causing everyone else to laugh. "The Lancelot of the Revolutionary Set! I came from afar just to say bonsoir! Tell the king casse-toi, who's the best: c'est moi!"

Hercules, who was sitting next to Laf, lifted him and set him right on the kitchen counter, prompting a surprised squeak from the Frenchman in question. Then he climbed on the dining room island and started singing his line. "BRAAH BRAAH!! I am Hercules Mulligan! Up in it, lovin' it! Yes, I heard your mother say 'Come again'!"

"AYYYYY!!" we all called out again.

"Lock up your daughters and horses!" He paused to give us a playful glare if we dared to say anything at this part. "Of course, it's hard to have intercourse over four sets of corsets!"

Laf put a hand over his mouth. "Wow."

"No more sex," John said, wagging a finger at Herc, "pour me another brew, son! Let's raise a couple more..."

"TO THE REVOLUTION!" all of us said, raising our juice glasses to the air, even Aaron.

"Well, if it ain't the prodigy of Princeton College!" John waltzed around the table and put his hands on Aaron's shoulders.

"Aaron Burr!" said Herc, pointing at him from his place in the island.

"Give us a verse, drop some knowledge!" Laf interjected from his place on the counter, causing John to look at him in mock anger for stealing his line.

Aaron stood up and dusted himself off. "Good luck with that, you're talking a stand. You spit, I'ma sit, we'll see where we land."

"BOOOOO!!" Laf and Herc called out.

"Burr, the revolution's imminent, what do you stall for?" John asked with his arms crossed.

"If you stand for nothing, Burr, what do you fall for?!" I snapped, standing up and throwing my arms wide. John, Hercules, and Lafayette looked at me curiously.

"Ooh, who are you?" John started.

"Who are you?" Herc joined in.

"Who are you?" said Laf, finishing it.

"Oooh, who is this kid, what's he gonna do?" Everyone except Aaron and me sang this. Then we all burst into laughter.

"We should sing 'My Shot' later," said Peggy, who rose from the table and stretched.

"Totally," said Maria. She crossed over to the pantry and opened it. She frowned. "Guys, we're running low on some stuff. We're going to need more dough for yummy treats."

Peggy joined her and looked inside. "Oof. She's right. James, Eliza, want to come with me to get some?"

"I'll go," Eliza offered.

"I can't," said James, "Alexander and I have to go pick up my medicine a bit later."

I nodded. "Mm hmm. Apparently if someone else pays for your meds, then _both_ of you have to come. It's stupid, I know," I said, when everyone else gave me a strange look, "but rules are rules, I guess."

Lafayette jumped off the counter. "I will go with you and Eliza, Peggy. Anyone else coming as well?"

Angelica, Thomas, and Hercules, who jumped off the island, all raised their hands.

"Let's go then," said Peggy.

As soon as they were out the door, Aaron said, "I'm going to see if anything needs cleaning," and disappeared up the stairs.

I shook my head. "Aaron Burr, ladies and gentlemen." The rest of us laughed at this.

"We'll go see if he needs help," said John, and walked off with Maria.

James and I remained in the area. We headed back into the living room to mess around with Herc's deck of cards. I'd barely pulled them out when we heard crashing down the stairs. I dropped them immediately and ran to the main stairs where Aaron was halfway down and still falling until he flew off about 4 steps from the bottom. I ran to the bottom and caught him before he hit his head against the marble floor. John and Maria came hurrying down the stairs moments after, and James came over from the entryway behind me.

"Jesus Christ, Aaron! Are you okay?!" I asked, still holding him bridal style.

He looked at me with a dazed expression. "I think... every thing is kinda blurry right now."

I carried him into the living room and set him on the couch. The others were huddled behind me, gazing at him worriedly.

"What did he do, trip?" James asked John and Maria. "Why'd he fall like that?"

"He looks really tired all of a sudden," I said. "Maybe that's a part of it?"

"He looked pained," said Maria, "like he had a migraine or something. He kind of staggered down the first few steps and then next thing we knew he was falling."

"We weren't close enough to stop him," John added with a sigh. "Some friends we are."

I shook my head. "Don't blame yourselves. I don't think that Aaron would want you to."

We were suddenly startled by banging at the door. I glanced at Aaron who had raised his hands to his temples and rubbed them. "James, take him upstairs, would you?"

Aaron held out his arms as best he could, and James lifted him up and took him up the back steps. Meanwhile John and Maria were grabbing the pillows and holding them up in case they were going to have to beat people up. I rolled my eyes and came to the door.

My eyes widened when I caught some of the King's guards in the peephole. I turned back to them nervously before slowly opening the door. "Can I help you?" I asked the one standing closest to me.

He didn't say anything, merely opened the door and barged in. He pointed at all three of us in turn. "John Laurens. Maria Reynolds. Alexander Hamilton." He motioned to the others and pointed at us again. Within seconds all three of us were struggling in the grip of two guards each. "You're coming with us."

Maria opened her mouth, possibly about to yell for James, but I shook my head slightly indicating that it was not the wisest of ideas.

They dragged us away. I remembered seeing James and Aaron's terrified expressions before the door shut.

********************************************

" _We haven't done anything to bring up this matter!_ " I screamed, being held on my knees in the King's throne room.

Maria, John and I were forcefully escorted onto the ground and straight up to the king himself, who smirked at us when we were forced down. The guards assumed I was volatile and going to pounce. Normally I would have, but I'd rather not make more of a scene in front of someone who could kill me.

"Oh? I believe some eyewitnesses say different."

"What eyewitnesses?" John spat. "How do you possibly have time to keep up with any random gossip like that?"

The King narrowed his eyes. "It's not random. It's practically treason."

"It's not our fault your kingdom is literally an ocean away from the rest of us," said Maria, putting her hands on her hips. "So excuse us if we want the freedom to decide things for ourselves without worrying about get our heads cut off!"

"Cutting off heads is more France's style," he said with a dismissive wave. "Besides, I have methods of getting what I want." He motioned to guards at the door to come forward. "Bring him in. He was so cooperative in giving us some info on your little protests along with your names. I'm guessing those others have the rest of the names we're seeking."

The guards left the room. We glanced at one another despite still being subdued. "Who is 'he'?" I wondered, adding air quotes.

"He said that he was an eyewitness to our acts, but there were so many out there? Who would specifically give up this information?" John whispered.

"And didn't he say he got some extra info from 'him'?" Maria pointed out. "It sounded like he meant 'pre-protest' info, like our preparation and such. Random people wouldn't know such things."

Now we were even more confused. We were desperately trying to rack our brains, thinking of who might just sell us out when we suddenly heard a familiar nasty voice: "Well, well, look who's here."

The guards turned us around, and now we were coming face to face with one Henry Laurens. All of us had horrified looks doted upon our faces for the longest time.

"What the hell?!" John finally yelled into the silence. "How would you even know about our rallies?! You literally have never paid me or my beliefs any mind since I was thirteen!" (He's nineteen now.)

"Mary ratted you out," he said simply.

"What?" John said, confused, "I don't tell my sisters anything, literally for this exact reason. Why would Mary know about it?"

Henry crossed his arms. "I had her follow you, Alex and Maria when you were meeting your friends in Hollendaise Square. I also had her listening outside your room while you talked to _them_ \- " he gestured to Maria and me - "about your poster making plans, along with your so called demands."

"That's called a violation of privacy!" Maria yelled, stomping her foot. If it weren't for the guards, she would have attacked him right then and there. "You don't just go doing that to people!"

Henry shrugged. "So? And now that he'll be out of the picture, my government seat will stay secure."

We all groaned. Of course this was about his stupid seat. Why were we not surprised?

"Yeah... about that," King George said, with a silent motion to one of the other guards. "He's now used up all his usefulness to me."

"Huh?" Henry said, before turning around slowly... and taking a knife to the chest.

He started coughing and hacking blood, Maria screamed, John threw up, and I was just frozen for the longest time, without so much as any other movements.

Then Henry Laurens slumped to the ground dead in front of us and the guards dragged his body away. "I literally don't know how I'm supposed to feel about this..." said John, who threw his head into his hands. He's always wanted his father dead, but like this? Maria and I could see why he was mixed about it.

"As for you three," the King spoke again, "you'll be heading to the dungeon to watch my favorite show: Torture Down Under! I'm fairly sure it will have you or our current victims talking in no time! And if not... that's okay! We needed new characters anyway."

All of us once again bore horrified expressions as we were led away, avoiding blood and vomit, King George following right behind us.

********************************************

It was dark and musty down there. Does he never clean up this thing? All three of us could feel water dripping from above. Or at least, that's what we thought until the King said, "Gertrude! I told you to be clean with them! Ugh, so rude. She can't even eat people without making a mess." Definitely not water. That was enough to make all of us throw up in our mouths right there.

They led us to the end of the hall and sat us down forcefully on three wooden chairs. I tried not to scream as I was pretty sure there were bugs crawling up my back right about now. The only light down there was coming from the cell's window in front of us. Three silhouettes were standing at the very back, two in the corners and one right in the middle. Then the King waltzed in front of us and pretended to hold a microphone.

"Welcome, viewing audience!" he boomed, causing all of us to cover our ears. "I'm your host, King George! And welcome to another installment of...Torture Down Under!"

All the guards behind us were clapping. We rolled our eyes.

"Today's episode is a special! That's right, we're actually going to be sparing Lee today! And no, we won't be touch Samuel or Miss P today either."

I winced. I didn't want to picture how many times any of them were forced to be a part of this "show", especially Lee since he was down here all the time.

"Let's meet our special contestants!" he squealed. As soon as they stepped forward, my blood ran cold. "Meet George and Martha Washington, and also Phillip Schuyler!"

"Oh my god..." John and Maria muttered on either side of me. All of them appeared pale despite their dark complexions, and didn't seem to be eating very much anymore given their now skinny physiques.

"Today's information to hopefully get out of them: treasonous secrets!" He waltzed up to the bars of the cell and tapped on them. "Failure to comply in any way will result in the fatally immediate replacement of our contestants."

"He's planning to kill them and then put US in their place!" John said. "What are we going to do?"

"The only thing you _can_ do is watch," hissed a guard from behind us. "If you try anything funny, we'll kill _you_."

That was enough to keep us all quiet.

"Now... what were the names of the people involved in the rallies?" he asked with his hands behind his back.

"That's too many people to remember," said Martha, hoarsely, "besides, we weren't there."

It was true that when we had done those rallies, before any of us were taken under, that none of the adults had come because they were covering for us. Besides our group, each of the others had one of them supervising their parts. We had none because our was sneakiest and they knew it. They didn't want to have to give that up. Of course, there had been 13 of us then - Sam at this point in time had been on the wrong side of the fight but could still be convinced. Theo and Lee were with Aaron because they were friends with him first before the rest of us, and Phillip Schuyler offered to cover their group, along with Eliza and Thomas (who was at least on speaking terms with most of us and on our side at least). George and Martha were covering everyone else - Lafayette, Hercules, James (he was slightly more hostile so him coming was definitely shocking), Angelica and Peggy, and while their parts were not as super crucial as the rest (rallying the crowds and writing the words), it would still mean bad things for us were those to slip out.

"Don't get smart with me, Martha. I'm asking for specifics," said King George, impatiently. "Namely, anyone closely associated with these three right here." He stepped aside to gesture to us. George, Martha, and Phillip's eyes went wide when they saw us all sitting there, and we could only shoot worried expressions right back at them. I knew that they desperately didn't want to tell anything, but we didn't want them to end up dead.

One of the guards behind us handed something over to the King over my head. The texture of the item seemed familiar as it brushed past, and then I realized in horror that it was a whip. He held it out in front of him towards the adults and all of them backed up. "I'm asking you one last time. If you don't tell me any names, you will be punished."

"We don't have to tell you anything," Phillip growled. The loyalty these three had for us was truly something else (unlike Henry's, and he's dead now).

"Fine. I gave you a chance. Guards!" Two of the ones behind us stood and made their way over to the king with whips of their own. One of them carried a ring of keys. He unlocked the cell and within moments all three of them rushed the cell and struck all three of them down. We would have turned away if the remaining four guards behind hadn't held our heads between their hands and forced us to look at them. We couldn't even cover our ears to drown out the horrifying screams. I was soooo not looking forward to these nightmares.

They stepped back, after a few moments, and all three adults were shaking and sprawled out across the floor. They weren't dead but they might as well have been. George stood over them with a wicked smile.

"Now if you don't wish for these beatings to escalate, I suggest you give us the info we need to know!" he hissed, raising the whip again. I did my best to catch Martha's eyes, and mouthed to her, "names are okay."

She sighed, and listed all the names. "Angelica, Elizabeth, and Margarita Schuyler. Thomas Jefferson. James Madison. Aaron Burr. Hercules Mulligan. Gilbert de Lafayette." She didn't rat out Theodosia or Lee because she used to hear some of our conversations when we talked with them and knew they were already here and in trouble. "We don't know any of their plans, I swear. They refused to tell us."

He stared at her for a while, and for a second we were sure he could tell she was lying. But then he shot them another wicked grin. "How sad that the woman had to give me what I wanted." He shrugged. "Well, that wasn't so hard. And we made progress! So our victims have been spared, for today!" All the guards behind us cheered. _Why, though?_

"Anyway, we'll see you on our next episode, where it will be business as usual! Thanks for watching!" Then he lowered his arm and spared a glance at the three of us. "I suppose I don't need you right now, so I will send you on your way. But if I hear about any more plots against me - " he gestured to Phillip, George, and Martha - "there will be deadly consequences. Escort them out."

********************************************

As we were dragged to the doors through the main hall, Theo and Lee, now in less tattered clothing with the same amount of bruises, caught us in the hall.

"Oh, Kline! Do you mind if we speak with them before they go?" asked Theo. "Please?" she added when the main guard, apparently named Kline, gave her a strange look. "It won't take long."

He shrugged. "I suppose, just remember to show them the way out. Let's go, boys," he said to the guards as they marched upstairs.

"We heard what happened," Lee said, "are you okay?"

"It's not us you should worry for," said John, "besides, when did you get released from the dungeon, Lee?"

He sighed. "When John Adams came to take my place. That man is an idiot, you know?"

We all rolled our eyes. We knew it all too well.

"He's taking them away for questioning!" cried Theo. We didn't have to ask who "them" were. "Lee and I snuck down to the basement when you were still down there. We were hiding in the rafters, and let me tell you, it's not fun hiding up there when Gertrude is snacking on her next victims."

All three of us covered our mouths. "Don't say that!" John yelled. "Now I'm going to be having mental images of my dad up there!" He thought for a moment. "Honestly, I'm still not sure what to make of it. But still, enough about that. What else did you find out?"

Lee crossed his arms. "After he made Kline and the other three guards drag you out, he talked to them again with those other two. It was a bit hard to see but we could hear everything clearly. He's planning on transporting them all the way to France! And you know how they feel about their punishments..."

I grabbed my neck in a choking fashion. "No..." I moaned. "We'll never see them again!" I started running around, panicking. John, Maria, Theo, and Lee chased after me, and they'd chased me up to the main doors, where I'd slumped down, screaming into my hands. We can't lose them! We just can't lose them! For the first time in years, I'd felt that my sense of family was restored, and I was NOT letting the likes of King George throw it away for me!

I started shaking in rage. John put a hand on my shoulder. "Alex? Are you okay?" he asked.

My head shot up. I looked at all of them with a fire I'd not remembered seeing in a long time, not since Thomas and James started being my frenemies. I didn't answer his question. I didn't have to. I stood up. "We have so much work to do."

All of them stared at me for a moment. Then Lee nodded slowly. "What's the plan?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, it had to be done. Good riddance!
> 
> Also does this make my fic rated Teen now?


	7. The Treasonous Event: Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The careful planning of the one event that would change their lives forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH SNIZ-AP!! We're finally here!
> 
> This chapter is split into two, the planning and the execution. Obviously this chapter will be shorter than the last one.

_We were risking lives; we were needy_  
_Sneaking into places awful seedy_  
_We needed weapons and half a chance_  
_because we were risking a quite dangerous dance!_

"Wait!" Samuel cried. "I'm confused, what are you planning??"

We'd managed to sneak up to Samuel's room without the King or his guards hearing us and took him with us in the rush back to our house. Theo and Lee had to explain all the events of the last few hours to him as he'd been locked in his room and therefore kept out of the loop.

A static sound from Theo's dress and Sam's pocket made all six of us jump. Theo reached into her pocket and answered first. "Who is it?"

"It's Hercules!" John, Maria and I gasped in shock. We had forgotten that the rest of them had gone out for dough when we were taken. "Do you know what's going on?! We managed to swing by the pharmacy and they said that Alex and James never came for the medicine! They let us take it ourselves, and when we got back to the house, James and Aaron were collapsed on the floor and John, Alex, and Maria were nowhere in sight! Have you seen them?! We're all worried sick!"

Sam handed me off the walkie talkie he was carrying. I pressed the button within my shaking hands. "Herc?! It's Alex! We're fine, we're safe!"

"Where have you guys been?!" Lafayette called out next. "James and Aaron keep saying that you were kidnapped, but you seem perfectly fine now!"

"We were!" said John. "The King took us all hostage to give us a huge warning. You remember those rallies we did all those months ago?"

"Yes..." said Eliza. "What about them?"

I sighed. "He's knows about them and he's warning us. If we keep smearing his so called good name against the wall, there will be consequences. Namely in the form of parental abuse."

A collective gasp rose from the devices. Then the shaky voice of Angelica rang clear. "Do you mean... our father? Or your parents?"

"Both," said Maria. "That's why they didn't come back. He took them hostage all that time ago and has been torturing them ever since." She paused for a moment before turning to John. "Should we tell them about Henry?" she asked quietly.

"Only if they have the stomach for it," he said with a shrug.

As she told them about Henry (I heard four people throwing up through the speaker - most likely Eliza, Laf, Aaron, and James) I felt the previous fire from moments ago still sitting with me. King George and the others had, as usual, gone too far, though this time it was time to take a stand. This is not how a king is supposed to treat his subjects if he wants them to stay loyal! And why should we?! He planted himself here in our peaceful existence just to torture and bully us all! Well, no more! We are not standing for this! We're going to be bringing a war to him whether he wants it or not.

"Alex?" John's voice snapped me out of my thoughts and I turned to face him. "Uh oh, I see that look in your eyes again. What were you just thinking?"

I shook my head. "There's going to be a bloodbath at that kingdom. We're not standing for this anymore. If he thinks slaughtering his own is okay, then we're going to give him a taste of that medicine."

The other four turned and stared at me in shock. They weren't sure what to say. Then Sam stepped forward and put a hand on my shoulder. He took a shaky breath before speaking. "So... what's the plan?"

********************************************

"If someone told me that I was going to find myself discussing a murder of our overlord's guards just to fuel the people into taking a stand and rescuing our parents, I would've told them that they've gone completely insane," said Eliza, calmer than most of us were expecting.

All fourteen of us were gathered at the dining table at home, with various papers littering the table. Some were rally signs, others were blueprints, and a few of them were strategical lists. For some reason, when we told the other eight of my thoughts none of them were surprised really; the surprising part was how willing they were to help fuel this fire of mine into a flame.

"Oui," said Lafayette. "This is uncommon, even in France, and they cut heads off for a living. I think they are rioting over there about now, at least from the last time I heard back."

"Didn't they cut off their leader's head?" asked Thomas.

Lafayette nodded. "They did. I feel that they set themselves up for their own destruction."

"So how do we get weapons?" asked Maria, pointing to a strategical list near Theo. "We're not exactly known here for our military prowess. That's Mount Vernon, and getting there is literally about five hours even by carriage. We don't have that time, and most of us don't have that patience. And you don't exactly just ask people for weapons outright."

"Leave that to us," said Lee. Right after he said it, the doorbell rang. He, Samuel, and Theodosia all walked up to answer it while the rest of us looked on in confusion.

"Godspeed," said the delivery person, and left. When they turned back to us, they were all carrying large sacks.

I raised an eyebrow. "What's in there?"

Theo grinned, reaching into her sack and unsheathing a sword and raising it over her head proudly. "Let's just say that Kline owed us some favors."

"Who's Kline?" asked James.

"He's one of King George's soldiers that's on our side," Sam explained. "You see, he had a daughter that was in the same position as Theo, Lee, and I had just been. She just wasn't as lucky as we were."

"Gosh," said Thomas and Lafayette in unison.

"So he's helping us?" Hercules asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You bet," said Lee, who held a hand gun in one of his hands. It shook in his hand. "Guns always make me so nervous now, ever since the King shot me in the side with one." He gazed at 11 horrified and 2 knowing expressions and sighed. "It's long healed, of course, but it's still painful to dwell on."

John gently took the gun from him. "Maybe you should use another weapon then."

"As should I," said Sam, now carrying a musket. "I'm afraid I'm not a very good shot."

Aaron said, with a chuckle, "that makes two of us, I suppose."

After a while of discussing plans and after everyone got settled with a weapon, I spoke up. "Alright, we'll need to split up into groups. We need to get the word out and we need to lead people to the castle. There are other mini tasks that can be done within these, but these two large groups will do. So we need to form two groups of seven. I'll lead the castle group." I glanced at Samuel. "You can lead the rally group."

"Why me?" he asked, shocked.

"You've done that kind of thing before, haven't you?"

He sighed. "Yes, but that was back when I was on the wrong side of the fight."

"So just do it for the right side now, oui?" said Lafayette, who clapped him on the back.

"Alright," Samuel said, with a crooked smile, "I'll do it. And I'll take Aaron, Lee, Hercules, Eliza, James, and Peggy with me."

I nodded. "Okay, so Thomas, Angelica, Lafayette, Theodosia, John, and Maria, you guys will be coming with me then."

All of us stood in two separate lines, facing one another, holding the hands of the one in front of us - Aaron held Thomas's, Lee held Angelica's, Herc took Laf's, Eliza got Theo's, John had James, Peggy had Maria, so Sam took mine. All of us held on firmly to one another for the longest time until we told one another "Godspeed". 

That's when we marched out of our safe house towards the biggest game changer of our lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter, and this prequel will be DONE!!! Brace yourselves.


	8. The Treasonous Event: Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The execution of the life changer; revenge is going to be sought; separation of friends; a new life on the run.

_All the glory_  
_in who tells the story_  
_luck of a clover_  
_this one's not quite over_

"We have to move quietly," I said.

John, Maria and I were hanging from the dungeon rafters at the palace. Our first act was to release Phillip and the Washingparents while the others stood watch as guards at the top of the stairs with Kline. After that, the second thing was to kill off some of the loyal guards to prove that we meant business. We were supposed to do that all at once, but we told the others to go ahead if it felt we were taking too long. It had been extremely risky for them to get the keys and pass them to us; Thomas had to snatch them off the belt loop while a meeting was going on that they were feigning interest in, and pass them off to us as we stood behind them out of the King's watchful gaze, then somehow snuck out.

"We have to move quickly too," John added. "Who knows when he'll be back down here to transport them?"

It was a good thing Gertrude, King George's giant rabid dog, chose now to sleep; if she was awake right now who knows what she would have done to us? We had to make sure we were a certain distance away from her nose at all times. Any closer and she would have woken right up.

We jumped off the rafters careful not to hit the ground too hard or splash around in any puddles. Then we crept up to the bars of the cell and peered in, where we saw George, Martha, and Phillip all passed out in some formation across the floor. I shook the bars gently.

"George? Martha? Phillip? Wake up," I said gently. They all sat up slowly and stared for a bit through the bars before realizing who was talking to them. They rushed up to the bars. "We're going to get you guys out of here, don't worry."

"What are you doing here?" said Martha, her look awfully defeated. "You shouldn't have come back."

It pained us to see such resignation in their eyes. "We have a plan," said Maria, as she searched for the correct key to open the lock, "and it should be being executed as we speak."

"What did you do?" asked Phillip, as Maria found the key and turned the lock.

As soon as the door swung open he got his answer. There were frenzied and confused shouts coming from above us, and a few seconds later, while Maria ran about the dungeon freeing anyone she could see who was still moving (they escaped out a secret passage they had planned out for months without any guards seeing them), Thomas and Kline came running down the stairs to us.

"It's a full scale riot out there!" cried Kline. "Is this what you had in mind?"

John was shocked. "Honestly? I thought there was going to be a way less severe turnout from what I'm hearing up there."

"It's like someone flipped a switch and now the entire castle is in complete chaos!" Thomas said, waving his hands around. I've never seen him so animated. I think he gets it from me. "Come up and take a look for yourselves!"

The eight of us ran up the stairs and stood watching the scene in front of us unfold. Various villagers were chasing some guards with swords and knives wielded in their hands; the soldiers had been outnumbered. Theo and Angelica were ushering the King's now ex-mistresses to safety so as to keep them out of the crossfire. Lafayette led a rallying cry with the remaining people, pointing towards the King who stands at a far end with a look of anger and terror mixed up, along with Samuel, Aaron, Lee, Hercules, Eliza, James, and Peggy who had all shown up at the main doors. And all the while guards and battalions were falling left and right, with no village corpses in sight.

"Jesus!" I said. "What a mess!"

Everyone nodded in agreement, and Hercules broke out of the group to reach us. "Can you believe this?! We might actually get through with this! Most of the captives have already fled the kingdom, so we can call that a success!"

"YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!" cried King George, who ran past us with some villagers on his heels. We laughed at the sight.

********************************************

"Are you sure you want to do this?" said Theo, trying not to cry.

It's now officially been a full seven days after our little excursion, and so far the King has decided to do nothing until now. He armored up on his battalion and now we don't stand a chance. For some reason, he's sparing the villagers, which I'm guessing is so he can tax them again. But now he's dropped his entire "brainwash us to brainwash them" plan because a proclamation was made at Hollendaise Square some hours ago regarding us and getting us out of the way. (We were all hiding with our faces covered so they didn't recognize us.)

"Hear ye! Hear ye! We are asking for the capture of fourteen most wanted criminals that think slaughtering their own to defy our values is an okay thing to do! Failure to give us any information that we wish to know if questioned will result in your immediate sentence to the King's dungeon. Any more questions?" they had said, and that was that.

We've all been hiding out at Maria's house since the incident because the guards had long come to arrest Phillip, George and Martha yet again from their houses, and it wasn't even for information, just to spite us. I remembered the Schuylers crying when they'd gotten here, holding up a walkie talkie they'd gotten from Sam, who was scouting the path ahead for him, Theo, and Lee, who were separating from us for safety and convenience.

"We don't have much of a choice, do we?" I said with a sigh. "They're expecting us to all go together. And we have to make it much harder for him find you three over us; he probably has the idea that you betrayed him beaten into his head at this point." I held Theo's hands. "He might kill you, and we wouldn't want that. We'll see you again someday."

She started to cry, I kept hold on her hand for a bit. Then she pulled away with a sad smile.

Lee came down the stairs then, with two messenger bags over his shoulders, one for him and one for Theo. He handed one off to her. "Sam says he's ready when we are."

Then he turned to the rest of us. "Thanks for sticking by us, for being our friends when no one else would." He raised a fist. "Raise a fist to the fourteen of us."

"Someday there will be more of us!" Lafayette cried out, raising his fist as well.

"And when this village tells our story..." Herc, Maria, and I said, joining in.

"They'll tell the story of today!" Everyone else who did not say anything prior finished up here.

********************************************

And with that, we had all split up and headed off to wherever the road was taking us. Yes, we hit quite a few bumps along the way, but if we remembered our promises it didn't turn out so bad.

(Now you see why I really didn't want to discuss this earlier, but it had to come eventually, I suppose. So now you know our backstory, why we're running. And our hopes for the future? Here's to hoping they'll finally be fulfilled.)

~~~ _A. Ham_ ~~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now you know their story.
> 
> To continue on in "Revelations and Revolutions"!!!
> 
> Godspeed ^_^
> 
> (by the way, did you like my mini verses that started most of the sections?)


End file.
